By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – It was as predictable as heat and humidity in July, or the outcome to a Rutgers football game.

And it grew with each spectacular play that Tyler Goodson made during Iowa’s 23-19 victory over Big Ten West Division leader and eighth-ranked Minnesota on Saturday at Kinnick Stadium.

The stale, misguided and ongoing narrative that Kirk Ferentz doesn’t use his best players to maximum capacity had once again resurfaced and just refuses to go away.

My twitter timeline was bombarded with fans criticizing or poking fun of the Iowa coaches for taking way too long to make Goodson the featured running back.

Some even said that Iowa would be 10-0 right now instead of 7-3 if only Goodson, a true freshman from Suwanee, Ga., had been the featured running back instead of having to share the position with juniors Mekhi Sargent and Toren Young.

Maybe so.

But we’ll never know, and that is also a huge assumption.

Goodson is obviously a dynamic performer on the field. He has a rare blend of speed, elusiveness and composure that has put him on a fast track for success at Iowa.

Goodson also came to Iowa as a highly decorated high school player from a state rich in talent, especially at the offensive skill positions.

So there already was a narrative saying that Goodson should play right away at Iowa, and it wasn't just fans saying it, but also some in the media.

And you what?

He did play right away.

In fact, Goodson entered the Minnesota game with 69 rushing attempts and 20 receptions.

By my math, that’s 89 touches, which was second on the team to Mekhi Sargent’s 115 combined rushes and catches heading into the Minnesota game.

Goodson carried 13 times for a career-high 94 yards against the Gophers, while Sargent had six carries for 18 yards.

So as it stands, Sargent still leads Iowa with 121 combined rushes and receptions, but Goodson is closing in on him with 102 touches on offense heading into this coming Saturday's home finale against Illinois.

That averages out to about 10 touches per game for Goodson, so it’s not that he was wasting away on the bench before facing the Gophers.

The Iowa coaches faced a delicate situation with a crowded backfield because there always is a level of awkwardness anytime a younger, talented newcomer enters the mix and starts earning playing time at the expense of others, in this case the others being Sargent, Young and fellow junior Ivory Kelly-Martin, who is easy to forget despite having started six games last season, including the season opener.

There are so many little things that fans and members of the media don’t realize, and aren’t privy to that help to determine how the depth chart appears each week, and how playing time is distributed without hurting team chemistry and morale.

It was clear early on that Goodson wasn’t as reliable or proven as a blocker as Sargent or Young, and yet Goodson still had nine carries in the season opener against Miami of Ohio, which matched Young’s rushing attempts in that game, and was second only to Sargent’s 13 carries.

It was also clear after four games that Goodson was firmly embedded in the rotation, considering he had 34 rushing attempts for 202 yards, while Sargent and Young had 54 and 33 carries, respectively, after four games.

Kelly-Martin, meanwhile, was the forgotten man with just five carries in the first four games, all of which came against Iowa State.

He now has six carries on the season for 23 yards, appearing in just four games.

Kelly-Martin still could quality for a redshirt if he doesn’t appear in more than just four games this season, and that appears to be the plan moving forward.

Those who believe that Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz hasn’t used Goodson enough probably would point to the Iowa State game in week three when Goodson only had three carries for 16 yards as an example.

Fair enough.

But it’s also worth noting that the yards on the ground came tough against the Cyclones, considering Iowa barely averaged three yards per rushing attempt, gaining 112 yards on 37 carries during the 18-17 victory in Ames.

My theory is that Kirk Ferentz was reluctant to give Goodson an extensive workload in a hostile road environment against the instate rival, in just his third game as a Hawkeye, and with the running game sputtering.

Some might say that is Kirk Ferentz playing not to lose, but it seemed more like Kirk Ferentz being careful and relying on experience to overcome a tough circumstance.

It’s easy to forget that Sargent led Iowa in rushing last season with 745 yards, and that he finished the 2018 season on a roll, rushing for at least 100 yards in the final two regular-season games, including a career-high 171 yards in the regular season finale against Nebraska.

Sargent also excels as a receiver and as a blocker, and that has helped him gain the trust and respect of Kirk Ferentz.

However, Sargent had a costly fumble in the 10-3 loss at Michigan on Oct. 5, and he has paid for it with less playing time ever since then. 

Young rushed 637 yards last season, so just like Sargent, he also had proven himself heading into this season.

The 5-11, 223-pound Young also gives Iowa a change of pace compared to Sargent and Goodson as more of a power runner.

The running game was mostly ineffective, and sort of an afterthought, during the losses to Michigan and Penn State, but the workload was equally distributed between Young and Goodson as they combined for 15 and 14 carries, respectively, in those two games.

And speaking of Young, he didn’t even have a carry against Minnesota despite having started the previous week against Wisconsin and leading Iowa with 44 rushing yards on nine carries, and despite averaging 5.6 yards per carry, which is the highest average among all of the Iowa running backs.

Playing time is a precious commodity that every player cherishes and works hard to earn on a daily basis.

Part of being a college head coach is dealing with egos and with players who were used to being the star and the workhorse during high school.

It makes sense why fans want to see more of Goodson, and why they’re so excited about his potential.

But to say that the Iowa coaches have held him back just doesn’t seem fair or accurate under the circumstances.

If anything, the Iowa coaches have recognized Goodson’s special talent and have carefully and delicately given him more responsibility at the expense of three established running backs who probably feel they should be playing more.

Ther Minnesota game was a must-win for Iowa as it tries to stay above being ordinary, and the coaches turned to Goodson to carry the workload, and they also opened up the playbook for him.

So instead of complaining that it took too long to happen, why not just be happy that it finally happened, and that the decision to feature Goodson helped to defeat the Gophers?

This narrative that Kirk Ferentz doesn’t always use his best players, or that he favors seniority, dates back to the 2001 season when Brad Banks was the backup quarterback as a junior behind senior Kyle McCann.

Banks gave Iowa a different dimension as a dual-threat quarterback, and he showed flashes as McCann’s backup during the 2001 season when Iowa finished 7-5 overall.

Banks then would go on to shock the nation by finishing runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in 2002 in his only season as the starter.

Iowa also finished 11-2 overall, including 8-0 in the Big Ten in 2002, so it was assumed by some that Banks would’ve been more effective than McCann was during the 2001 seasons, if only Banks had been the starter.

That’s another big assumption, especially since Banks has said that he wasn’t ready to be the full-time starter in 2001.

Some also point to former running back Akrum Wadley as another example of a player that wasn’t used enough at Iowa, and yet, Wadley is Iowa’s fifth all-time leading rusher with 2,872 yards and he had 536 rushing attempts as a Hawkeye despite having fumbling issues early on.

There is also the narrative that Kirk Ferentz waited too long to promote C.J. Beathard as the starting quarterback over Jake Rudock, even though Rudock had a pretty good season as a first-year starter in 2013.

There is no denying that Rudock regressed in 2014 and then Kirk Ferentz announced shortly after the season that Beathard would be the new starter.

Some fans say that Ferentz waited too long to make the switch and use the fact that Iowa finished 12-2 in 2015 with Beathard as the starter as their proof.

Again, that’s making another huge assumption, and it’s not that Rudock was horrible as he showed after transferring to Michigan as a graduate student and then playing well.

There was also the strange case of tight end Noah Fant, whose playing time was reduced last season, partly due to T.J. Hockenson's emergence as a star at that position.

But I will admit that Fant's case was odd because he was a proven star after having caught 11 touchdown passes during the 2017 season.

Fant still caught seven touchdown passes and made first-team All-Big Ten last season. But he was used more as a specialist and Kirk Ferentz even called him a specialist when asked last season about Fant's reduced role.

Oliver Martin's case is also odd in how the sophomore receiver from Iowa City, who transferred from Michigan in June, has gone from catching a touchdown pass in the season opener to barely playing anymore. Martin appears to be no higher than fifth or sixth on the depth chart right now, but it's hard to know why without being at practice every day.

So it's not that the Iowa coaches are beyond scrutiny because there have been some personnel decisions under Kirk Ferentz that didn't make a lot of sense. But his handling of Goodson's playing time does make sense under the circumstances, at least to me. 

Goodson now appears to be the featured running back and the other running backs will just have to deal with it and use his success as motivation.

Goodson said he was speechless when told that he would start against Minnesota.

But then his performance spoke loudly.